Super Mario Bros: Edge of Darkness
by Jaxer
Summary: It has happened. Bowser has finally taken over the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario, Luigi, Peach and Captain Toad lead up a mighty resistance to end Koopa's rule, and save all of the enslaved Toads. Takes place in a darker version of the Mario universe.
1. Prologue

It was a dark night in the Mushroom Kingdom. Not darker than the others, just dark.

It was even darker, if you had a nightshift in the Toad Town Mines.

The Toad Town Mines is the hardest place for slaves, and it's also unfortunately the place with most slaves.

"Do your work, you filthy scum!" A Koopa soldier yelled to a male Toad while he nudged his gun at him.

"Please, no more..." The Toad whispered in pain.

"You want to do this again, do you?" The Koopa soldier asked while he took out a whip.

"Please..." The Toad whispered.

WHIP!

The Toad screamed in pain while he was being whipped.

WHIP!

"This is what you get for not obeying king Koopa's orders!" The Koopa soldier said angrily.

WHIP!

The other slaves looked at him for a while, but soon turned back to their work, not wanting to get the same treatment.

WHIP!

"You're here to do exactly one job, and you're gonna do it!"

WHIP!

"This isn't a holiday resort!"

WHIP!

"If you won't learn it normally, you're gonna have to learn it the hard way!"

WHIP!

The Koopa was mumbling something, while the nearly dead Toad saw something unusual.

The guard Koopas guarding the entrance to the mines were dead. The Koopa with a whip also noticed it, and saw a bunch of armed Toads coming from the entrance, leaded by two figures, one being red and the another one being green.

The Koopa knew who they were, so he grapped his machine gun and dropped his whip, which pleasured the Toad on the ground. The Koopa started to yell.

"Get in positions, boys! It's the Resistance!"


	2. Chapter I - Grassland Outpost

Peach woke up. She slowly opened her eyes. The bed squeaked, as she stepped up from the bed. She was already wearing her dress(Or whatever was left of it), since Grassland Outpost didn't have the luxury called pajamas.

Grassland Outpost, the fortress the Resistance hid in was the closest scouting outpost to Toad Town the Koopa Troop used to have. But since they have successfully taken over the Mushroom Kingdom and the Mushroom Castle, they have left it there to rot, until the Resistance found it. The Resitance made a lot of changes to it, they removed the lava pits, turned a few barracks into living quarters and removed or relocated most of the traps. It wasn't the best place to hide in, but it was good enough for the Resistance.

Peach took a walk. She was worried about Mario and Luigi, since they leaved with a squad couple days ago to liberate the slaves in Toad Town Mines. Peach did have faith in them, but they still haven't returned from the mission.

As she stopped worrying about it, she noticed that she was already at the canteen. The canteen was made from the main room of the fortress, where a Koopa liutenant used to spectate the area around the fort(Most of the time it was Larry).

"Howdy, Peach! Come here!" A voice said from somewhere in the canteen.

Peach soon regonized the voice as she headed towards the source of the voice.

"Captain Toad!" She said.

Without Captain Toad, it would be likely that the Resistance would've never existed. Thanks to his commando training, he has successfully trained many voluntaries to fight for the restoration of the Mushroom Kingdom. He is also known for carrying atleast one pistol and two grenades with him everywere he goes.

"You seem tired, have a cup of coffee", Captain Toad recommended.

"No thanks", Peach answered.

"Is it about Mario and Luigi?" He asked.

"Yes, and they still haven't returned, even though they left two days ago. I hope nothing bad has happened to them", She said.

"Don't worry! They have survived from way more dangerous missions than this. I bet that they're already on their way home!" He answered positively.

"I guess so", She sighed.

"While we're waiting them to get home, why don't we go for a walk?" Toad asked.

As they were walking trough the living quarters, Peach looked around, and felt bad for the people living there. Everyone was wearing the same, dirty work clothes they wore when they escaped from the Koopas, and children were playing with old, broken toys.

All of this just because of the Koopa occupation.

Mushroom Kingdom wasn't the only one suffering thanks to the Koopas. Beanbean Kingdom was turned mostly into industrial area, Sarsaland was turned mostly into farmlands, and Jewerly Land was turned into a mining area, with the Mushroom Kingdom being the center to rule all of them.

And then there was the Dinosaur World.

It was inhabited by Yoshis, peaceful little dinosaurs who couldn't hurt a fly.

They were nuked.

All of them.

As Peach And Toad were already near the front door, Peach looked at the door and sighed, fearing that Mario and Luigi might never return. Just when she was about to walk away, the door was kicked open by a familiar red figure who was carrying a wounded Toad.

"This man needs a medic, and fast!"

The wounded Toad was laying on a bed, with Peach and two Toad medics around it.

"His vital signs are extremely low, he seemingly was whipped to the back, as we can see from these scars", the female medic said.

"We need these scars closed up!" The male medic said to a couple other medics, who soon ran there to help.

"The scars are now closed, so he won't bleed any longer, but his vital signs are still extremely low", the female medic said.

"We need to use an 1UP", the male medic answered.

"But they are extremely rare-", the female medic said before he was cut by the male medic.

"Do you care for this man's life or not!" The male medic yelled.

The female medic took out a green mushroom with white dots on it, and shoved it to the Toad's mouth.

"Take a bite", the female medic said to the wounded Toad.

The barely alive wounded Toad nodded, as he took a bite. The Toad fainted.

"His vital signs are stabilizing, but he needs some rest", the male medic said to Peach.

Peach left the room, and started walking towards the conference room. The conference room was where attacks and other missions were planned. Only Liutenants and up were allowed inside.

When Peach entered the room, she saw Mario, Luigi and Captain Toad already around the table. As Peach walked at the table, they started the conversation.

"We did it! All nightshift slaves in Toad Town Mines rescued!" Mario said.

"Yeah, but Koopa will notice soon that they are missing", Captain Toad added.

"Yeah, but as we know from previous experiences, he's not gonna bother trying to look for them. Instead he'll just split the dayshift group into two", Luigi added.

As they kept conversating about the problem with slaves, Peach said nothing. Absolutely nothing.

As the meeting ended, Captain Toad headed to train new troopers, Peach followed Mario and Luigi. When they noticed that she was following them, they turned around, as she gave them a big hug.

"Don't you ever dare to trick me like this again", she said nearly crying.

"Don't worry, we won't!" Mario said.

They headed togheter to watch Captain Toad training new troops.

"Alright, soldiers! Left face, right face, right face, about face!" Captain Toad yelled at the troops.

Peach saw how little military experience the voluntaries had, but as long as they have hope, they could win the hardest battle.


	3. Chapter II - Power Star Temple

"Alright, soldiers! Your training is now officially complete!" Captain Toad said to the soldiers, as they saluted him.

Captain Toad was heading towards the conference room, since they have planned a meeting.

In the meeting, everyone was already already around the table.

"Even if we freed every slave in the Mushroom Kingdom, we still couldn't beat the Koopas", Luigi said.

"But there has to be some way! We can't just let the Koopas win!" Peach yelled.

"There is one way, but it's extremely dangerous", Mario said his first words in the whole meeting.

"The Eternal Star"

Everyone in the room was silent. For a moment, nobody saod anything, until Captain Toad opened his mouth.

"Mario, the Eternal Star was made up. It was nothing but just a statue in the courtyard of the Mushroom Castle", He said.

"No, it isn't! When Koopa cursed the Castle and trapped everyone inside it, I went to the dimension he created with star power and fought him, and saw the Eternal Star to give me magic to flee me back home and free everyone in the Castle!" Mario said angrily.

"It's true! I was one of the people to be saved from the Castle, and even though I didn't see it, I felt a very strong powerful presence while landing. A presence too strong to be from a regular Power Star", Peach added.

"But how do we get it and it's power?" Luigi asked.

"We have to summon it in the right place", Mario said.

"There are only two places in the world with enough power to summon it. The another one being the Comet Observatory, which is too far away. The another one is in here, the Mushroom Kingdom", he added.

"There must be another way! If the second location exists, the Koopas probably have security forces around it", Captain Toad said.

"No, I'm 100% sure the Koopas don't even know about it, and yes, there is another way to summon it, but it's currently unknown, so trying it out might be worthless", Mario added.

"Then why aren't we already heading to there?" Captain Toad added.

It was midnight. The sky was clear, with only the moon in sight. The ground was otherwise clear, except one tank soaring towards the horizon. It was a regular Dreadnought-class Koopa attack tank, except it has been heavily modified.

The turret has been modified to have space for two gunners instead of one, since a rear minigun has been added into it. It also had a lot of design changes. It was coloured green and yellow, and it had a bunch of custom emblems, including a Toad's arm squeezing a Koopa's skull, and a big Mushroom Kingdom flag.

Inside the tank, there were two lonely drivers talking to each other.

"So it's called the Power Star Temple?" Captain Toad asked.

"Yes. It was built during the very first Star Festival with the power of the Eternal Star", Mario answered.

"If you're sure that the Koopas don't know about us, then why did you tell me to bring this assault rifle with me?" Captain Toad asked.

"I never said that they don't know about us, I said that they don't know about the temple", Mario said.

Mario climbed up to the gunner's seat to observe around the area, but then he saw something horrifying.

"Stop the tank! Now!" Mario yelled.

"Why?" Captain Toad asked.

"NOW!" Mario yelled.

Captain Toad stopped the tank as Mario hopped off it and started running towards some ruins next to the tank.

"Why did we stop here?" Captain Toad asked.

"You don't understand! This is the Power Star Temple!" Mario said.

"It's gone! It's useless! We can't summon it!" Mario added.

BOOM!

Something hit the tank, and exploded it.

Mario went to check it out. It was the remains of a B1 LL Combustible Rocket, or Bullet Bill, as the Resistance called it.

There were many variations of the B1 LL rocket, but only one faction used it.

The Koopas.

"Oh no", Mario said as he ran towards the ruins again.

It was 1 AM, and only the moon was visible.

Mario was standing on the ruins of what used to be the Power Star Temple, as he looked towards the horizon, where Koopa Cruisers came from dropping off more troops.


	4. Chapter III - Thunderstorm

The sky was full of Koopa Cruisers landing onto the ground to drop off Koopa soldiers, but then Mario saw something huge in the sky.

It was a huge, brown, otherwise regular ship you would see in the sea, but it had propellers where there should've been sails, and on the side of it read "THUNDERSTORM" in big capital letters. Mario immediately knew what was going on.

Thunderstorm was one of Bowser's attack ships, and it was the oldest of them. It has been in use since the Great Mushroom War way before Koopas controlled the Mushroom Kingdom. It was built by Morton Koopa, Bowser's father and the previous ruler of Koopa Kingdom. Ever since the Koopas have had the Mushroom Kingdom under their control, it has been used for one specific purpose.

Leaving no survivors behind.

"Run", Mario said.

"What?" Captain Toad asked.

"RUN!" Mario yelled.

watch?v=uMtuiJwQPZM

Captain Toad started retreating, while shooting at the Koopa foot-soldiers chasing him.

Meanwhile Mario was surrounded by Koopas, who told him to drop off all of his weapons. Mario did drop his pistol to the ground, but he grabbed a Fire Flower from his belt, and thew fireballs at them.

Soon more Koopas saw that Mario was escaping, and they started chasing him. Soon Mario jumped trough the soldiers, and then threw more fireballs at them.

Then Mario saw that a cannon was rising from one of the Koopa Cruisers. As soon as the cannon shot one Bullet Bill, Mario dodged it.

Soon more Koopa Cruisers started shooting Mario. Mario dodged all of their bullets, but then Mario saw something weird happen.

The hangar doors of the Thunderstorm opened.

"Not more Koopa Cruisers...", Mario thought while throwing a fireball towards a Koopa soldier that ran towards him.

But no Cruisers came from the hangar. Instead, four liftarms descended from the hangar, holding four Banzai-class B1 XL bombs.

"Mario! Come here!" Captain Toad shouted from behind a rock.

Mario ran there, as the liftarms dropped the bombs to the ground.

BOOM

Even though Mario was too far to be killed by the blast, it slammed him towards the ground, and knocked him unconscious.

STOP MUSIC

"Mario, wake up", a strange voice said.

Mario slowly opened his eyes, when he saw something weird. He was in an endless void, with blue to every direction he saw. He couldn't believe what he saw, but he still saw it.

"Am I dead?" Mario yelled.

"No, you're not", the voice answered.

"Who are you?" Mario asked.

"We're the beginning, the end, light, darkness, life and death", the voice "answered".

"Show yourself!" Mario yelled.

"Everything will be revealed to you, but the time time is not yet ready, so wake up, Mario, wake up..." the voice said.

Mario was about to ask that how did the voice know his name, until his vision was slowly blurring into darkness.

The voice kept repeating 'wake up' over and over again, until Mario realized that it was repeated by a different voice, a familiar voice.

Peach's voice.

Mario slowly opend his eyes, as he saw that he was laying on a bed in the medbay of Grassland Outpost.

"Mario! Thank goodness you're alive!", Peach said while hugging him.

"Wh- What happened to the Power Star Temple?" Mario asked.

"It's destroyed. The Koopas bombed it", Captain Toad said, as he entered the room.

"We also sent Luigi and Commander Toadette on a very important mission", He added.

"What kind of mission?" Mario asked.

"Rumours have been spreading about two skilled bounty hunters who have killed armed Koopa Troopas and some of our men. We want to hire them", Captain Toad answered.

"You're gonna hire two criminals? That's ridiculous! Luigi and Toadette will end up being dead!" Mario ranted.

"Don't worry. I know who they are", Peach said.

"Trust me, they'll do everything to get Koopa killed", she added.

Meanwhile in a small pub in the middle of Toad Town:

"Who do you think those two assasins are?", A purple female Toad asked from Luigi.

The purple female Toad was Liutenant Toadette. She actually was a sergeant in the Royal Military Forces of the Mushroom Kingdom before the Koopa invasion, but was promoted to LT because of it.

"I don't know, Peach didn't exactly tell- wait!" Luigi was about to say, until he was interrupted by something he saw.

"Is that what I think that it is?", Luigi asked, as he approached a green, dinosaur-looking creature.

The creature ran into the back room, and Luigi followed him.

When Luigi entered the room, he looked around the room, even though it was really dark.

As soon as Luigi turned around, the green dinosaur slammed him towards the wall and took a knife out.

"You bastards weren't there to do anything when those other bastards nuked my place!"


End file.
